Voting should be free, fair and accessible

In these hyper-partisan times, perhaps the one issue we can agree on is that all eligible voters have the right and responsibility to cast their ballot. Voting rights are intensely personal and are the basic building block of our country’s freedoms. Mess with voting rights at your own peril.

Colorado’s election system should be free, fair and accessible. Both political parties believe in the integrity of the election system and any politician who says otherwise should be viewed with suspicion. No one is in favor of voter fraud. And everyone believes that only citizens should vote.

Unfortunately, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler has attempted to muck around with rules, laws and the voter rolls since he took office a year and a half ago. Secretaries of state, perhaps more than any other elected office, should avoid the appearance of partisanship to maintain the confidence of voters.

Instead, Gessler has often thrust himself into the media spotlight and repeatedly been admonished by the courts, the legislature and county clerks for over-stepping his authority. A year ago, he ordered clerks not to send ballots to voters who had missed just one election, a group of voters that included overseas military personnel. Luckily, a judge refused to let Gessler’s order stand.

Gessler has had numerous run-ins with the county clerks across the state, the very people who should be his natural allies in running smooth elections. His aggressive attitude, mandates to the counties and advancing his own agenda has created bumpy relationships with clerks of both political parties.

Gessler’s legislative agenda to change voter laws that would tip the scales in his political direction has failed because of his inability to form broad-based support for his narrow agenda. He has alienated legislators from both parties with his ham-handed tactics. After numerous riddle-plagued mailings, some voters are not too happy with him either.

Politicians should not manipulate the system to influence the results in their favor. Changing voting and campaign finance rules during a highly-charged presidential election is never a good idea.

Colorado voters will see these tactics for what they are: short-term politics. The vast majority of voters go to the polls with bigger visions – to make their children’s lives better, improve their communities, or just because they’re proud to be Americans.

On Election Day, everyone is equal. Every eligible vote counts, rich and poor, young and old. This is how you fight back against any politician who is trying the “game” the system. Voting is taking control – it is how Americans stand up for their rights. And it will tell the politicians who has the real power.

Joan Fitz-Gerald is former Colorado Senate president and current head of America Votes, a Washington D.C.-based liberal organization that coordinates election campaigns with 37 Colorado groups.

Voting machines in the critical states of Ohio and Colorado are owned by a company that has “extensive connections to the Romney family”. The same machines will also be used in Texas, Oklahoma and Washington. These machines have had problems in the past.
They are easily hacked. Easy to re-program by a computer wise person
We, the voters, must be aware of the discrepancies. The “swing” states are extremely at stake this election. If you don’t know about or remember Florida’s “handing chad” that changed the direction of the USA, you need to learn about it.
Yes, dishonesty is in ALL political parties. It is the highest single threat to our rights and freedoms no matter which party is at fault.
In this election there has been many fact based incidents that point directly at the Reps. (No One is saying it’s beyond Dems. or implying Dems are “saints”.)
It just so happens it’s the Republicans trying to change the voter registration process, making no allowances for the elderly, the low income people, the handicapped. That is something ever voter, Rep or Dem should be aware of and question.
It just so happens that the Romney family has a major “conflict of interest” in the voting machines that ARE being used in these critical states. These machines have an extremely high risk of easy alteration. That is something every voter, Rep or Dem should be aware of and question.
It also just so happens it’s been the Republican Party that keeps hiring and firing “Nathan Sproul”. And Nathan Sproul keeps breaking the law. That also is something every voter, Rep or Dem should be aware of and wonder why.
What kind of “hissy fit” would the Republicans be throwing if the Obama family owned major interest in a voting machine company and had all the big dollar guns from Wall Street and hugh major corporations with bottomless pockets supporting him…guaranteed it would be an endless “fit”! We would be hearing about nothing else 24/7, non-stop.
It should be us, the VOTERS having the fit. The right to vote is the one most single important right American citizens have. It is the voters that MUST stand up and demand a clean, honest election…in all 50 states, with all political parties.
Sorry, but as an Independent voter that believes more in “doing what is best for this nation than undying party affiliation devotion”; there is real concern about a party that uses the services of a crook AND touts the greatness of a candidate that has such a narcissistic personality, that lies, twists facts AND will say any thing to get elected AND that candidate owns an interest in the very same company that supplies voting machines used in critical swing states of his run for president AND is funded with an endless supply of money from the most corrupt financial adventurists (that just happens to be the largest contributors of nearly bringing our nation to it’s knees)…
You bet, this is one voter that is going to wonder if the Reps are dishonest . Hopefully some one will be watching. Hopefully ALL voters will be watching!

The radical extremist republicans have whole heartedly accepted totalitarianism, corruption, and incompetence. With them, it is anything goes.

Airborne All The Way

Hi,

We have vote buying by Democrats in Arkansas for a small bottle of vodka. We have the son of Jim Moran (D) Virginia caught on video explaining how to fraudulently vote using an altered or counterfeit utility bill.

I bought a foreclosed home in 2010 that had been vacant for over two years. However, in 2011 I received a jury summons, based on the voter rolls, at my house in Colorado Springs, CO for the former resident. The El Paso County local government is not doing much to clean up the voter rolls. President Obama’s administration has thrown every kind of road block up to prevent access to databases of illegal immigrants and green card carriers, both ineligible to vote, which could be used to scrub voter rolls.

A TV station in Florida matched jury recusal forms where the reason cited was ineligible to serve because the person was not a citizen with records of past voting. They found over 100 instances of non-citizens voting in Presidential elections going back to 2000; i.e. Bush versus Gore.

Ms. Fitz-Gerald sounds very hypocritical and unctious to me. I would have hoped that the Denver Post would have screened the submissions better.

Regards,

Airborne All The Way

PS I have emailed this information to the Denver Post news reporters. The reporters seemed some what confused about scrubbing databases and ensuring data integrity. The El Pao County employee I informed about the jury summons seemed apathetic and uninterested in cheap ways to scrub the voter rolls.

Anonymous

Please provide links, or at least a title to an article that would support your post.

Yaakov

Unfortunately, Fitzgerald doesn’t want to find out if people who are legally ineligable to vote are voting anyway. The left has repeatedly demanded proof of impropriety and worked to inhibit legal investigations. Democrats (and she is one) are banking on illegal voters.

Anonymous

Be so kind as to provide links, or at least the title to an article that would support your allegations.
Thank you.

Anonymous

Let us be honest about this–Most of the voter fraud or attempt at voter fraud comes from the radical extremist republicans that know they cannot run on the issues because they have very few, if any positive accomplishments.
People have been caught in Florida and Virginia for dumping registration forms etc..
The Pennsylvania man caught in Virginia may get off scot free, because the Attorney General will not prosecute him.
This is nothing less than “legalizing crime” and the Rule of law should be enforced.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

Guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address, day and evening phone numbers, and may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.

To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331

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